Health Care

In
many ways, the United States is the global leader in health care. From the
best-trained doctors to the most state-of-the art medical equipment to
breakthrough treatments for deadly diseases, Americans expect and often receive
the best care anywhere. Yet despite our many assets and strengths, there is
significant room for improvement. Our $1.8 trillion medical system depends far
too much on antiquated paper files and out-of-date customs to make it work. The
digital tools that have radically improved productivity and quality across our
economy have barely touched health care, and it shows.

While
almost every sector of our economy is transforming itself through new
IT-enabled processes (such as direct-to-consumer connectivity, real-time online
access to critical information and aggregation and analysis of detailed data),
our health care sector remains characterized by islands of advanced
technologies in a sea of paper. As a result of this poor information
management, our health care system too often fails our patients. Americans
spend significantly more per capita on health care than the citizens of any
other country, yet we do not receive commensurately greater quality of care
across the board. Paper-based systems contribute to medical errors that drive
up costs and harm patient safety.

We’re
letting down our doctors too. By keeping vital patient information out of their
hands, we limit their ability to make the best medical decisions. By failing to
automate prescribing and delivery systems, we subvert their intentions and
confuse their instructions. By failing to collect information on quality and
outcomes, we decline to provide them with the best data they could have about
the results of medications and treatments, information that would help them
save lives.

It’s
time for America’s unmatched technology and business creativity to focus on our
citizens’ health and well-being. We have great doctors, hospitals, pharmacies
and scientists. We are blessed with a national culture of pragmatism,
compassion and innovation.

Policy
makers and business leaders have the opportunity and obligation to address this
issue head-on and transform the quality, efficiency and value of health care.
The Technology CEO Council is focused on providing an approach to health care
that reaches across government, business and the provider community to reward
integration and coordination of care, not isolation, to speed the adoption of
evidence-based clinical practices, not keep them in medical journals and to
strengthen the doctor–patient relationship, not create adversaries.

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The Technology CEO Council is the information technology industry`s public policy advocacy organization comprising Chief Executive Officers from America's leading information technology companies. Learn More